A naturalized Ukrainian citizen since 2008, Dević made his international debut for the country in 2008 and has since earned over 30 caps and scored 7 international goals. He was part of the Ukrainian squad which co-hosted UEFA Euro 2012.

Born in Belgrade (SR Serbia, SFR Yugoslavia), Dević started his career at his hometown club Zvezdara, making 14 appearances and scoring twice in two seasons with the club, in which they were both promoted to and later relegated from the top flight.[7] He later played for Železnik, Radnički Beograd and Voždovac, all in Serbia. He spent just one year at each of the clubs. He scored three goals in 20 appearances for Železnik, including one goal in 19 league appearances and two goals in one cup match. He scored once in 16 appearances for Radnički, before joining Voždovac where he scored four times in 14 appearances. At the end of the season, Dević moved to Ukraine to play for Volyn Lutsk.

In 2005, Dević was bought by Ukrainian club Volyn Lutsk during the 2004–05 Ukrainian Premier League. He made 14 appearances but failed to score a single goal as Volyn finished in 8th position.[8] The following season he netted twice in 18 league appearances for Volyn. At the end of the season the club was relegated[9] and Dević was considering to go back to Serbia. Instead he moved to Metalist Kharkiv. Dević made 32 league appearances for Volyn, and a further one cup appearance, scoring two goals.

Noticing Dević, Myron Markevych had him bought by Vyscha Liha club Metalist Kharkiv. He scored 4 goals in 27 league appearances in his first season as Metalist finished in 3rd position.[10] In the 2007–08 season, he was top scorer of the Ukrainian Premier League with 19 goals in 27 matches played. Close behind him were Oleksandr Hladky, Oleksandr Kosyrin and Yevhen Seleznyov, each with 17 goals scored.[11] Despite Dević's goal scoring efforts Metalist finished in third place once again. Dević had a slow start in the beginning of the 2008–09 season but in the 13th round he scored both goals in a 2–0 win over Chornomorets Odessa. He finished the season with eight goals from 24 league matches as Metalist once again finished third.[12] Metalist also made it to the round of 16 in the UEFA Cup but lost out to another Ukrainian side, Dynamo Kyiv, on away goals after a 3–3 aggregate score.[13] Dević scored eight goals in 24 league appearances in the 2008–09 season, with Metalist finishing in 3rd place.[12] In the 2009–10 season he netted eight times in 20 league appearances as Metalist finished third.[14] In the 2010–11 season Dević topped the assist table for the season with 9 assists. He also managed 14 goals in 24 league appearances to become the second highest goal scorer behind Yevhen Seleznyov of Dnipro, helping Metalist to a 3rd place finish.[15] The 2011–12 season saw Dević score 11 goals from 26 league matches as Metalist finished 3rd for the sixth season in a row.[16] Metalist also progressed to the quarter final stage of the Europa League, losing out to Portuguese side Sporting 3–2 on aggregate.[17] Dević scored five goals and three assists in 484 minutes of play in the competition, finishing in a tie for eighth place in the scoring charts.

He left the club in 2012 after six seasons to join the reigning Ukrainian Premier League champions Shakhtar Donetsk. Dević managed to score 64 goals in 148 league appearances for Metalist and 75 from 192 appearances in all competitions.

Dević joined Shakhtar during the 2012–13 Premier League season on a four-year contract[18] for a fee of £4.4 million. Although he had the number 33 at Metalist, he instead took number 18 at Shakhtar as the number 33 shirt was already assigned to Darijo Srna. He made his first appearance for Shakhtar as a 77th minute substitute for Alex Teixeira in a 2–0 victory over Metalurh Donetsk in the 2012 Super Cup.[19] This success marked Dević's first trophy. His league debut for Shakhtar came in a comprehensive 6–0 victory over Arsenal Kyiv. He came on as a substitute for Alex Teixeira in the 69th minute and scored his first goal for Shakhtar, a penalty, in the 94th minute of the match.[20] His first start came in a commanding 4–0 victory over Volyn Lutsk. He scored the first goal of the match after 4 minutes and added an assist for Henrikh Mkhitaryan.[21] He scored another goal in a 4–1 win against Vorskla.[22]

Dević also had a very successful season in 2007–08, scoring 19 goals and becoming the top scorer; this in turn put some pressure on the head coach of the national team Olexiy Mykhailychenko who hesitated with Dević's selection. In his defense Mykhailychenko stated that just because a striker had one great season that might not be enough to consider Dević for selection. Nonetheless Dević was first called up to the team by Oleksiy Mykhailychenko for a friendly match against Norway on 19 November 2008,[25] becoming the third naturalized citizen on the Ukraine national football team called up at that time, along with Oleksandr Aliyev and Artem Milevskiy. Dević played the second half of the match and wore the number 10 shirt. In the next couple of years his match participation dropped noticeably, due to his low performance in the Premier League as well as not scoring with the national team.

Dević was a member of Ukraine's squad for UEFA Euro 2012. On 19 June 2012, he was in the starting line-up for the game against England in the final round of games before the quarter-finals. Ukraine lost 0–1, with Wayne Rooney's scrappy second-half finish carrying England through at the Donbass Arena in Donetsk. However, Dević had a goal disallowed in the second half after John Terry hooked the ball clear from behind the line, as confirmed by video replays.[26] England ultimately won Group D (after Sweden unexpectedly overturned France) and Ukraine were dumped out of their own tournament. Dević's "ghost goal" reopened football's goal-line technology debate.[27][28][29] While replays of the build-up also appeared to show Dević's teammate Artem Milevskiy — who set up Dević — in an offside position when the ball was played to him, which too went unnoticed by the officials.[30] The following day, UEFA and its chief refereeing officer Pierluigi Collina admitted an error had been made and that Dević and Ukraine had been denied a legitimate goal.[31][32]